The tank that should have failed

[PulposTriste]

Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.

I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.

As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha

But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.



As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals


But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha

Edited September 7, 2019 by PulposTriste

[3littlefish]

Nice thank though.

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[3littlefish]

May i know where u get the cheato light from

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[PulposTriste]

1 minute ago, 3littlefish said:

May i know where u get the cheato light from

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Oh I got it from Just Betta, I'm not sure if they are still selling but I got it for $12(?). It's quite bright for a small light

[3littlefish]

Okiee cool! Sounds gd when it manage to harvest yr cheato

Oh I got it from Just Betta, I'm not sure if they are still selling but I got it for $12(?). It's quite bright for a small light

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[3littlefish]

May i know hw often u do yr wc and r u dealing w the algae issue

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[PulposTriste]

1 minute ago, 3littlefish said:

May i know hw often u do yr wc and r u dealing w the algae issue

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Oh just once a week or two really, I do a 30% water change, as for algae I just use a algae scraper, only growing on the glass haha

[3littlefish]

Okiee.. for my case i will use turkey blast to siphon up the rocks algae lol

Oh just once a week or two really, I do a 30% water change, as for algae I just use a algae scraper, only growing on the glass haha

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[snickerdoodle]

Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.


I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.



As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha



But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.



As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals


But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha

tbh is a chiller needed? I plan on doing a mixed reef but chillers are quite costly :0

--
Regards,
Snickerdoodle
The Reef Noob

[alexcyf]

Exactly as in the title, I'm a complete beginner. My tank is almost 2 months old, a softies dominated, second hand IM Nuvo 10.


I don't use RODI water like everyone says, only dechlorinated SG tap water and Red Sea Black bucket salt.

I don't run a chiller or a fan either, the temperature can even swing up to 30°C occasionally.

I just top up manually every other day, sometimes even forgetting to do so. The salinity can range from 1.024 to 1.027

I don't dose anything, or test for anything. Its starting to even have some small coraline growth.



As for lighting I just used a the stock IM Skyye 8w light that came with the tank, not the best but it allowed my corals to grow. My zoas and all corals are growing and opening up nicely. I even have a montipora digitata frag in there that's growing faster then I expected, even after I accidentally broke it into small 1cm pieces

There's even a small rock flower anemone that never moved from it's spot, which kinda shocked me since I was worried it would one day venture into my powerhead.

I also run a protein skimmer, just the IM Desktop ghost skimmer, it does release a bit of bubbles occasionally but it's not the worse, I do get some tea coloured skimmate.

I do have a small refugium for chaeto though, it's just a small air driven breeder box with a cheap LED light but the chaeto growth is insane. Same goes for the pods population, I'm even considering to get a Mandarin goby haha



But of course, I'm not spared from algae growth, though it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly kept under control by my astrea snails. It recently got better ever since I started running phosguard. There's also this rock covered in a sort of macroalgae and my orange yuumas that looks way better under actinic.



As for lifestock, all there is a single fire goby that I can't take a pic of, he's so damn fast.

And here's my small rack of zoas and misc corals


But yeah I went into this hobby without realizing what I was doing is wrong, and even then it still worked out somehow. Just figured its interesting to share with you guys since I've ran into a lot of people that insists a lot of this and that like "no chiller no corals", "no dose no sps/lps", "no ro water don't even bother". Well i did the exact opposite and it's worked out nicely for me so far, so yeah I hope you enjoyed this short presentation of my tank haha

Well, it’s not exactly clear cut when people say those statements.

No chiller, I would say, no sensitive corals. And pple who have their tanks maintained at 28 or so, or below, becuz of aircon and fan. Can afford to also keep some higher demand corals. Fan of cuz will have to compensate for higher evaporation rates. Generally most softies that u are keeping, are hardy and can survive probably below 30 deg.

No dose no sps/lps. applies to most of e corals in these categories. There are some that can still manage fluctuating parameters. Of cuz, by water changing, u are already topping up the lost elements. It’s e flunctuations, esp for small tanks with large water changes, that doesn’t work for sensitive corals.

No RO water, don’t even bother. Well. It’s not exactly true. Guess many pple are not using rodi. But definitely, it will encourage more undesired algae control. As long as u have other mechanisms in place, to manage ur algae issues, no RO water can work too.

Your tank is still new, so give it more time to stabilize ya.




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[peacemaker]

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I would hardly consider a 2 month old tank to be a success story. Granted, some of the advice that you have received may seem a little extreme, but it is important to note the purpose behind those advice. It depends on your ultimate goal, what you want to achieve for your tank, and applying the knowledge that you have acquired to get it done.   

[Solo77]

In this hobby, you can go against the flow and things might work. Just how sustainable and if things happened, just accept and reef on. 

[Otaku Reefer]

Just my 2 cents, its not about whether u can or cannot be successful if you dont follow the “golden standard”. Its more about when things start going downhill, if too many variable in the equation it will make troubleshooting very complicated, which factor causing the issue you dont know for sure. So its better to follow the rulebook and use Chiller/RODI and save yourself some trouble? My 2 cents lah


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[Keepfishes]

Very inspired to see this. Going to restart my saltwater tank this Sunday. Looking forward to see updates

[Fennieyuen]

How does your refugium work? Thinking to add one to my tank

[DrunkG0D]

Nice. Keep it up. I do agree with some if the other comments that it is still new but who knows this might work very well for you and I hope it does. Keep the updates coming. Always good to see alternative methods of success.

[ReDDeviLs]

during our time, mature tanks are more than 1 year old. new trends are hard to catch up! 
keep up the good work. looks promising.